That didn’t take long at all – a flight from Doha to Heathrow, with a nap, a 30 Rock episode and the crossword thrown in for good measure. I was expecting something a bit more fraught, but as soon as I crossed the UK Border at Heathrow I remembered the quintessential English qualities: stoicism, irony and understatement. The character of Florence Green seems emblematic of a particular kind of woman, exceeding expectations notwithstanding and falling at the last hurdle to blind bureaucratic stupidity. I would have liked this novel anyway, because it is about books; but I liked at admired Mrs Green for her courage even when her enterprise is doomed.